


Sign of the Times

by montyschaos



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Angst, F/M, First work - Freeform, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Post-Canon, Unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28012359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/montyschaos/pseuds/montyschaos
Summary: Inej continues to stay strong in the face of adversityorKaz knows he should be a better man for her.
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Sign of the Times

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Carinna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carinna/gifts).



> Hehe, I bet this was a surprise for you Carinna.  
> I tried to combine two things you love :))))))  
> Happy Secret Santa :)

Kaz still remembers the exact moment Inej disappeared from his life. Well, it was not just one moment. There were plenty of longing glances, fleeting touches, and more time away at sea. He would feel his heart crack every time he watched the mast of her ship disappear over the horizon.

But she would come back, to Ketterdam, to see them. As bad as the goodbyes were, at least he had the hello’s and the how have you been’s. Every day with her was an internal fight to live in the moment, to forget that their time here was long from over. And so he did. He focused on the minutes, the moments of comfortable silence between the two, and he never forgot.

This time was no different.

Inej sat on the perch of his window in the new Slat. The truth danced on her tongue, but she didn’t let the words leave. Her heart ached, longingly and in mourning. It ached for Kaz, it ached for the return of her mother. It ached for some semblance of peace. It was so easy. She could just tell him. She knew he cared about her. She knew if last year had taught her anything it was that he wanted her to be happy.

“ _We don't talk enough. We should open up. Before it's all too much_ ” She thought carefully shifting her weight staring at Kaz sitting at his desk. He was writing something very carefully, and she was met with the realization that she was no longer in his life like she used to be. Before, she would be able to guess at whatever he was writing, with the two details he would whisper to her. Now, the name of the next slave trader was the only thing she saw when she closed her eyes. She owed it to her saints to pay it forward.

“If you have something to say, you might as well spit it out” Kaz didn’t spare her a glance, choosing to keep writing new entries in the ledgers. He knew she couldn’t see his trembling fingers, and he was thankful for once of the dim nature of his room. The air between them was thick, even with the open window, even with the chill of the early fall evening.

If he hadn’t known her so well, he wouldn’t have registered her sudden movements to the end of his desk, but he did. Instead of sitting in a proper chair, she slid to the floor, her arms wrapped around her folded legs. She laid her head on the back of the table leg, and her eyes fluttered close.

Something was wrong. Inej never acted like this, and Kaz briefly wondered who he needed to slowly and painfully torture next. Then he stopped himself. She could handle herself. She may not be his Wraith anymore but she was one regardless and no mortal man could stop her. He eternally debated staying in his seat or sitting next to her, trying to understand what would waste the time more. There was an unspoken agreement between them, the understanding that they could be more than what they were when they had met, but he couldn’t shake off Dirtyhands so easily.

And maybe he wasn’t supposed to be able to.

 _“Will we ever learn? We've been here before. It's just what we know._ ” Kaz’s mind spun so fast, thinking of the mistakes he had made before when he almost lost Inej, on the ship bleeding out in his arms or in Van Eck’s personal torture chamber. They had been in this situation before, attempting to balance their personal vendettas along with retribution and the undeniable something between them. She had asked him to be better, to promise her something more than his word, so that’s what he would do: become that promised semblance of a man for her.

“Something happened,” Kaz stated as he hobbled over to her and dropped beside her, back resting on the other table leg. He had learned to ignore the pain in times like these. Something else inevitably overcame it anyway.

“Observant as ever Kaz,” Inej muttered softly.

Kaz would have said something, but he noticed the way she had almost formulated her thought. She was so close to telling him what had happened, and even though this was the first time they had seen each other in months, he knew he should let her take her time. If it was unimportant, she wouldn’t have hesitated to drop down next to his shoulder unabashedly sharing her point of view.

She hesitated, but after a few moments, she spoke. “She’s dead Kaz. My mother is dead.”

Kaz’s heart dropped. He hadn’t known her well, but he knew death as an old friend. It followed him everywhere. He would have given anything at that moment to make a deal with the Devil because the anguish on Inej’s face made it hard to breathe. He squeezed his eyes shut and welcomed the wave of nausea as he rested his ungloved palm on hers.

It took everything he had to keep ahold of her hand, pushing past Jordie’s face and the pile of bodies. Instead of counting the dead eyes staying back at him, he counted each memory they had shared. Seeing her for the first time in the Menagerie, the day he paid off her debt to Tante Heleen, the first deal they went on together, the Ice Court debacle, watching her run to her parents last winter. It all flashed through his head, and he held on for dear life.

“ _Just stop your crying. It's a sign of the times. We gotta get away from here. We gotta get away from here._ ” Kaz almost let it slip out of his tongue. If fate were to weave their paths, their journey would have been marked by a distinct separation. Both were trying to reach their goals; although, Inej’s personal mission to hunt down every slade trader was more admirable than his own plans. Even with that, he would have gone to the ends of the world to stop time and give her what she needed because he could see how everything weighed down her. She had seemed lighter when she had first started going away, but now she seemed completely different.

“ _Just stop your crying. It'll be alright. They told me that the end is near,_ ” Kaz said instead. “Your saints will protect her.” He had learned to be more understanding, to give into Inej’s whims. Since meeting her, there was only before and after, and he hated everything in both. The world had begun to cave in around them the first time they met at the Menagerie. He had to learn to live with it all.

Still, he sat in his office in the new Slat next to a seemingly shattered Inej, holding onto her hand. He waited for something to give in, a sign that he should stop, a sign of the times. Instead, she sidled closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder. He grit his teeth, but he continued to suppress the urge to leave because he was going to have to learn to get better around her. He was going to have to learn to be a better man around her.

That was his promise to her, and he never broke a deal with anyone.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried hurt comfort, and I almost made it way too angsty. Also, it is short, but ah well. I couldn't think of more non-angst stuff.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this because I really liked writing it.


End file.
